MELFORT — The Carrot River Valley School's opening will be delayed, according to the Sept.19 North East School Division board of education meeting.
Originally set to open in November 2023, the school will now see an estimated opening date in April 2024. Delays with the air handler unit which is used to regulate and circulate air as part of a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system were unexpected. Lair said aside from those delays, the school is looking great with many classrooms becoming complete.
Other items discussed at the meeting include the approval of the new Arborfield boundary change, the 2022-23 Transportation report, how well students are reading, the approval of the 2023-26 strategic plan, and a small school update.
Transportation report
Within the transportation report prepared by Wanda McLeod, Superintendent of business, the board reviews this report twice annually.
The report has four key risk areas of: driver competence, student behaviour, vehicle maintenance/condition and external factors. Cameras are installed on 78 per cent of all buses. Each year, 10 cameras are installed to reach the goal of 100 per cent of all buses.
Currently, recruitment has had some success with a standing advertisement for casual bus drivers with some success.
The average age of a student who rides the bus in 2022-23 school year is 7.6 years of age.
Reading levels
Lair provided the board with a summary of the NESD balanced scorecard. This report analyzes children reading at or above grade level. Data is collected from Grade 1 to Grade 6 in a majority of the North East schools.
The data shows the percentage of students reading at or above grade level is at approximately 67 per cent in the earlier years. Lair said pre-covid numbers were approximately 80 per cent of students were reading at grade level or higher. Lair said she was encouraged that in the earlier years, Grade 1-3, those percentages are increasing as they move into the next grade and credit teachers for their focus on literacy throughout the NESD.
Small schools report
A report was provided to board on small schools within the division. Lair said it was a health check that looks at social interactions and teacher workloads.
Audit
Lair said on a rotation, the provincial auditor works with school divisions to work with their audit team, to do a check on accountability and is a standard practice. There is more frequency with this in the bigger centres with more dollars and this year is the NESD's turn.
